handling and care for a laptop?

[silencer534]

well I am about to get my first laptop and I was wondering what kind of things I should do to take care of it and extend its life..

 

[silencer534]

oh and is there anything I should check for when I first get my laptop?

 

[kayatai]

for 1). the only real sure way is to purchase an extended warrenty. the battery will probably die just after 1 year, as that is all it is ever warrentied for.

for 2). check for dead pixels on the lcd. check to make sure all the software is up to date, including drivers and other patches provided by microsoft and the manufacturer. check to make sure you have reinstallation CD's (damned sony for not providing them!). check the battery life, make sure they didn't give you a bad battery off the bat. run PCmark or some other benchmarking software as a mini stress test and to check your numbers against comparable hardware, this is usually a pretty good indicator that most critical things arent configured poorly (ie hdd set for dma transfer etc).

 

[silencer534]

Originally posted by: kayatai
for 1). the only real sure way is to purchase an extended warrenty. the battery will probably die just after 1 year, as that is all it is ever warrentied for.

for 2). check for dead pixels on the lcd. check to make sure all the software is up to date, including drivers and other patches provided by microsoft and the manufacturer. check to make sure you have reinstallation CD's (damned sony for not providing them!). check the battery life, make sure they didn't give you a bad battery off the bat. run PCmark or some other benchmarking software as a mini stress test and to check your numbers against comparable hardware, this is usually a pretty good indicator that most critical things arent configured poorly (ie hdd set for dma transfer etc).

will I be able to get a extended warranty plan after ive already ordered?

how can I check the battery life?

 

[kayatai]

Originally posted by: silencer534

Originally posted by: kayatai
for 1). the only real sure way is to purchase an extended warrenty. the battery will probably die just after 1 year, as that is all it is ever warrentied for.

for 2). check for dead pixels on the lcd. check to make sure all the software is up to date, including drivers and other patches provided by microsoft and the manufacturer. check to make sure you have reinstallation CD's (damned sony for not providing them!). check the battery life, make sure they didn't give you a bad battery off the bat. run PCmark or some other benchmarking software as a mini stress test and to check your numbers against comparable hardware, this is usually a pretty good indicator that most critical things arent configured poorly (ie hdd set for dma transfer etc).

will I be able to get a extended warranty plan after ive already ordered?

how can I check the battery life?

if from dell, yes, you can purchase extended warrenty after the fact, I would also consider complete care, but I am paranoid.

to check battery life, unplug it and play with it browsing the net or something and see how long it takes to discharge the battery. you should be getting near advertised battery life.

 

[silencer534]

i heard theres a battery guage on the dell 8500....

 

[vegetation]

If you don't have a long warranty, extend your battery life by removing it from the unit whenever plugged in. All that heat and trickle charging takes its toll on premature battery failure.

 

[kayatai]

Originally posted by: silencer534
i heard theres a battery guage on the dell 8500....

there's the windows battery gauge on all laptops I think, but they run on microsoft time (ie they are really not accurate), the only true gauge of a battery is to actually charge it all the way and drain it all the way, doing what you would normally be doing on it.

 

[kayatai]

Originally posted by: vegetation
If you don't have a long warranty, extend your battery life by removing it from the unit whenever plugged in. All that heat and trickle charging takes its toll on premature battery failure.

the warrenty on the battery is only 1 year even if you have an extended warrenty on the battery. Sucks. If you are only using it as a desktop replacement and you don't need to move it quickly, leaving the battery out is an option. This will leave a hole in the laptop however, where the battery should be. Some other laptops have a door for the battery which is nicer.

 

[eriqesque]

Originally posted by: vegetation
If you don't have a long warranty, extend your battery life by removing it from the unit whenever plugged in. All that heat and trickle charging takes its toll on premature battery failure.

If it is a Li/Ion batt. you don't need to worry about removing it
the battery has a chip to stop the charging and so on.
leave it in that way it will also act as a UPS somewhat.